


Happy Birthday, Adora

by starprincess96



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Catra Goes to Therapy (She-Ra), Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, F/M, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Alteration, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, Trans Perfuma (She-Ra), Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 04:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26347336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starprincess96/pseuds/starprincess96
Summary: Glimmer has a birthday. Adora doesn't know hers. Catra goes on a search.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 133





	1. Bright Moon Birthday Blues

**Author's Note:**

> sorry about any dropped threads; I wrote this in the course of just over a week and am chronically incapable of going back and editing anything, so, here's just, how it is. also i apologize in advance for every time Melog just, kinda, disappears from the story; their existence just kept slipping my mind.  
> spoilers for all of season 5, if that wasn't clear! you have been warned!  
> this is my first fic ever, and my first time having other people see my writing, and it's scary! hope y'all enjoy!

Catra was woken up earlier than usual by Adora gently shaking her awake.

“Hey, you; how’d you sleep?”

Catra stretched luxuriously, nuzzling against Adora’s neck, blinking slowly as the peaceful fog of a good night’s sleep cleared up.

“Mmmm, why are we up early? You know I don’t like early,” Catra said, purring as Adora scratched the top of her head.

“Oh did I forget to tell you? It’s Glimmer’s birthday today!” Adora sat up carefully, making sure not to jostle Catra too much.

“Uh, her what now?” Catra looked up at Adora, then stretched again and sat up herself.

Adora smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Oh, that’s right, nobody’s told you yet. Okay, so, you remember that party we had a few weeks ago, to celebrate our return from our first successful space exploration mission? A birthday is kind of like that, except it’s for when you were born!”

Catra sighed, walking over to the mirror to inspect her hair. In the months since the victory over Prime, it had started growing out again, and right now it had a very irritating tendency to get in her face a lot. Adora walked up behind her, picking up Catra’s brush from the vanity, and started carefully brushing it, eliciting another round of purrs.

“So, how exactly does one go about knowing that kind of thing?” Catra felt Adora stop brushing, clearly figuring out how to best answer her question, but was interrupted by the realization. “Oh. That’s… that’s what happens when you have parents who love you, isn’t it? They actually give a shit about your happiness, and your existence, and don’t just want to use you to make them feel better about their pathetic, worthless-”

“Catra.” Adora’s hand on her face stopped Catra in her tracks. Catra blinked away a tear she hadn’t realized had formed at the corner of her eye, and looked into Adora’s warm, loving face. “Breathe with me.”

Catra stopped herself from snapping back at Adora, instead drawing in a large, shaky breath, then letting it out and closing her eyes.

“In.”

The two of them breathed in for a count of two.

“Out.”

And out for two.

“In,” three, “out,” three; “in,” four...

Somewhere around seven, Catra’s breathing had evened enough to where she felt better. She opened her eyes, and saw Adora looking at her with pride.

“In,” eight, “out,” eight, “aaaaaand done.” Adora stroked Catra’s face with her thumb. “Feel better?”

“You know what would help even more?” Catra looked down at Adora’s lips, then back into her beautiful blue eyes. Adora took the hint, and leaned in for a warm, loving kiss.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, shortly followed by Bow poking his head into the room. “Hey, are you two- oh, sorry, I-”

Catra sighed against Adora’s lips and pulled away, letting her turn to face him. “Hi Bow; is everything set up?” Adora slipped her hand into Catra’s, giving it a little squeeze that made Catra’s heart flutter, though her face would never show it.

“Just about. Everyone made it here safe and sound last night, and Glimmer and I are about to head out for our... “ His voice cracked a little as he said, “our date. We should be back around dinnertime. ”

“Don’t be late, or Casta will never let you hear the end of it,” Adora joked. “She is *so uptight* about making sure that eeeeeeeverything is perfect for Glimmer’s first post-war birthday, it’s been driving me nuts!”

“Boooooooooow!” Glimmer’s voice echoed down the hallway.

“Oops, gotta go. See you two later!” Bow excused himself from the room. “Right here, dearest!”

Once the familiar sound of Glimmer’s teleportation went off, Catra looked at Adora and laughed. “I can see why it took them so long to get together.”

“You’re one to talk,” Adora teased back. “How many years did it take us to finally be together?” She squeezed Catra’s hand again, leaning against her.

“Too many,” Catra said softly. “But now…”

They stayed like that for a moment, just enjoying their closeness, until Adora stood back up.

“I had someone make us outfits for today; I’ll go and pick them up, and meet you back here a little before it’s time for the party, okay?”

“Sure thing. Think I’ll go say hi to some of our friends.”

“Mkay. Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Every time Adora said those words to her, she was the happiest person on Etheria.

“I love you too, dummy. Now get going, already!”

Catra padded silently through the castle, hearing the familiar voices of the princesses and her other friends echoing down the halls. She made for one room in particular, knowing who would be there. Once she’d arrived, she reached to open the door, but, deciding to take a page out of Arrow Boy’s book and be respectful, she knocked.

“Scorpia? You’re in there, aren’t you?”

When the door opened, Catra was very glad that she had decided to knock. A red-faced Perfuma peeked out the door at her. “O-oh, hello, Catra, it’s so good to see you.”

Seconds later, Scorpia threw open the doors and enveloped Catra in a giant hug. Catra counted to ten in her head, then said, “Okay Scorpia, I need to breathe.”

“Oh wildcat, it’s so good to see you!” If Catra hadn’t had a good idea of what had been going on just before she knocked, she might not have noticed the slight blush still on Scorpia’s cheeks that finished fading away as she tenderly set Catra down. “Are you excited for the party later? Perfuma was just telling me all about it!” Catra saw Perfuma blush and play with her hair a little bit.

“Yeah, sure, it’ll be great. Listen, Scorpia, I have… kind of a weird question for you. I… need your help.” Catra almost regretted her plan as Scorpia enveloped her in another hug.

“What is it? How can I help ya?”

“Okay, I know this… this might bring up some bad memories, and… look, okay, do you remember when you were digging through all of Shadow Weaver’s old files for me?” Catra sighed, not wanting to look directly at Scorpia, and choosing to instead look at Perfuma, who appeared to have calmed herself down and was now… holding Scorpia’s claw?

A flash of a memory ran through Catra’s mind. A whip at her waist. The lights of the ship flickering around them. Scorpia’s face very near to her own.

She shook herself, and tuned back into what Scorpia was saying. “...mess, but since I’ve been working on rebuilding the Scorpion Kingdom, I figured they could be useful to have around, what with all the information she kept on materials and people and all that.”

“Do you remember ever seeing any personnel files? About the soldiers?”

“Huh. Y’know, I can’t say that I remember seeing anything like that, but there are a *lot* of files that I haven’t even started to look at yet. Why? Was there something in there that you wanted to find out?”

“It’s… It’s nothing.” Catra turned away, ready to walk out of the room, but then felt a soft hand on her own.

“Catra, you can tell us. We’re your friends,” Perfuma said. “If there’s something we can help you with, just let us know.”

Catra sighed with mild exasperation, but then took several calming breaths. “Okay. It’s just… Do either of you know when your birthday is?”

“Oh! Sure, mine was a few months ago,” Scorpia said. “July… 6th? 5th? Eh, it’s sometime around then, I think”

“Mine is March 1st; rather fitting, seeing as that is right around the start of spring, is it not?” Perfuma giggled, looking at Scorpia and then turning back towards Catra, who looked sullen. “Is… Catra, do you not know when yours is?”

“No,” Catra said, “and neither does Adora. Know hers, I mean,” she said, awkwardly rubbing the side of her neck. “And I was thinking, maybe…”

Perfuma’s eyes lit up with understanding. “You think there might be some information about it in the files?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell ya what, wildcat. After today’s party, you can come take a visit with Perfuma and I to the Fright Zone, and we can go look for it together. That is, honey, if you don’t mind her coming along with us?”

*Honey?* Catra kept her surprise off her face. Perfuma showed none of her earlier embarrassment, instead looking pleased at the idea. “That sounds wonderful! Plus, then Catra and I can spend some time talking about how her exercises have been going.”

Catra rolled her eyes, but looked at how happy Scorpia’s face was, and forced down her first instinct of refusal. “Sure. After the party. Oh, and uh… Don’t tell Adora, okay? I… I want to surprise her.”

“Sure thing, wildcat. See you at the party!” Scorpia smiled very widely at her, and Catra took her cue to head out and go see what some of the other princesses were up to.

Normally, Catra was a fan of parties. Lots of chances to mess with people, though nowadays in far more innocuous ways than she used to. And now, being *with* Adora, she got to see her girlfriend all dressed up, happy, and at her side for all of it.

Once she had gotten back from greeting all the other princesses and assorted other guests, she and Adora had gotten changed into their outfits for the party, which were a dress (red, very stylish, with plenty of free movement possible) for Adora, and a suit for Catra (a striking white with red accents). Naturally, she went with her classic style: bowtie undone and hanging down to the sides, shirt popped open halfway down her torso, and no shoes. Her hair was still being annoying and getting in her face, but it turned out Adora had picked up a little something special: a small set of hair pins that, when attached and a small button on them pressed, disappeared from sight. It let her keep her hair up and out of her face without having to slick it back, a thought that still to this day gave her chills.

That thought gave her enough of an issue that she took a few seconds and went through breathing, up to a count of 6, before she felt better. When she was done, she opened her eyes and looked at Adora, who was holding her hand out to Catra.

“You ready?” Adora said as Catra took her hand and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Of course I’m ready, it’s a party; how could I not be?”

“Well…”

Ten minutes later, Catra understood what Adora meant. The sorcerer lady (who Adora had, in hushed tones as they entered the main hall, informed her was named Aunt Casta) was an absolute nightmare. She had no idea that anyone on the side of the rebels could be anywhere near as controlling as Shadow Weaver had been, but this lady sure gave the old hag a run for her money. Must be a magic user thing. She had corralled Catra and Adora to their seats immediately on their entering the hall, and everyone else who entered after them suffered the same fate. They were seated at the largest table, which had several chairs still empty: two at the head of the table (obviously for Sparkles and Arrow Boy), another one directly opposite Adora’s seat that she thought must be for Casta, and a large one down near the end of the table that could only be for Adora’s weird flying horse.

“What is her *deal*?” Catra whispered to Adora, not wanting either Aunt Casta (what was an Aunt, exactly?) nor anyone else seated at the table to hear her.

“I know, right? She was like this at Glimmer’s coronation, too. Well, really, that whole day was kind of a mess, remind me to tell you about it sometime.” Adora reached out a hand to sneak some food off the table, but had her hand smacked away by Casta out of nowhere.

“No eating yet! Not until Glimmer and Bow get here. And where is that horse of yours?”

“He’ll be here, Casta, don’t worry,” Adora reassured her. She whispered to Catra, “he’s putting the finishing touches on another song.” Catra rolled her eyes (the first day after Prime had been defeated, the dumb horse had gone around singing all sorts of nonsense, and it had really gotten on Catra’s nerves), but Adora’s hand on her knee kept her from being any more visible about her irritation.

After around twenty minutes, during which time it seemed everyone else had finally showed up, there was a flash of light and Glimmer and Bow appeared at the front of the room. Everyone burst into applause, which quickly transformed into excited gasping and hushed whispers as everyone got a look at the pair.

Catra noticed that Bow was wearing one of Sparkles’ earrings, and she had a golden wristband on, which appeared to have come from Bow’s arm, as he was only wearing one himself. Catra looked at Adora, who shrugged; neither had any idea what the cause for all the excitement was.

“Everyone? We have an announcement to make,” Glimmer said, hushing the entire room. “Bow and I, will be getting married!”

The entire room burst into applause, and even Catra gave a few begrudging claps, eyeing the pair, who were beaming at the entire room. _Not half bad, Arrow Boy_ , she thought to herself; _she’s a real…_ Her train of thought was interrupted by Casta, who asked everyone to sit down, and then started giving a speech, which Catra paid attention to for around three seconds before tuning it out and looking around the room for some way to cause mischief, both to keep herself entertained and to distract the train of thought that she was in no particular mood to explore right now. She spotted a drinks table, and knew exactly what the rest of her night was going to be like. She nudged Adora, inclined her head at the drinks table, and winked with a sly grin. Adora blushed, but nodded her head.

Once the party had gotten going, Catra had to admit that it had been better than she expected. She, however, had not had quite as much of a time of things as Adora had, who she was now having to help walk back to their room.

“Adora, I can’t believe your tolerance is this low!”

Adora giggled and looked at Catra with slightly unfocused eyes, her face very red.

“mmmm so soft and fuzzy... warm... pretty kitty…” Catra couldn’t help herself but purr as Adora hugged her very close and nuzzled against her shoulder. “...miss- ma’am- er, kitten; if i ever- EVER- get a girrrrrrrrlfriend, i want her to look, and sound, and, and smell, and _feel_ jusss EXACTLY like you.”

Catra took advantage of the moment and, with a smug smile on her face, held Adora’s face up with her hand. “Well, princess, you’re in luck, because I _am_ your girlfriend.”

The look on Adora’s face made everything worth it. It took her a moment, but as she realized what Catra had said, her face lit up with pure joy. “whaaaat? no waaaaaay! se- seriously?” She hiccuped, and Catra couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle, and nodded. “scooooooooore!” Adora nuzzled back against Catra’s cheek, eliciting another purr from her.

“Oh, we’re here.” Catra shifted Adora’s weight to open the door to their room.

Somehow, Catra managed to get both of them ready for bed without any major incidents. Adora seemed to have sobered up a little bit, but she was still very warm and blushy and affectionate as they cuddled together in bed.

“Hey, uh Adora?”

“mmmmmm, yeahhhhh Catra?”

“Uh, tomorrow, I’m going with Scorpia and Perfuma, to visit the Fright Zone. They need my help with something; I couldn’t get much out of Scorpia out of it but there was something about some sort of infestation? Anyway, I should be back by tomorrow night.”

“awwwwww, that’s nice of you, mmm, you’re really sofffft…”

Catra purred deeply, closing her eyes with a smile on her face.

“I love you Adora. Good night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay, Bow and Glimmer are engaged! the idea for their thing is from several other places, including [list those here please]  
> scene in the middle of intoxicated adora is an adaptation of [this comic](https://twitter.com/adooboo1/status/1292922602541821952?s=19)


	2. Fright Zone, Round 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra, Melog, Scorpia, and Perfuma go to the Fright Zone. The search begins in earnest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk what it was about the files idea that really got in my head but it *really* did for some reason, so, that's where a lot of this comes from  
> if it wasn't clear from the tags, yes I am treating Perfuma as transfeminine; I didn't want to get too into it, since it feels like something she would have long since moved past, but it seemed natural for it to come up how it did and not be any more in-depth than that.

For once, the next morning, Catra was the first one awake. She scribbled out a quick reminder note for Adora; usually, her memory was pretty good even when she got like she had been the previous night, but Catra didn’t want to take any chances or worry her about having run off. 

As she made her way towards Scorpia’s room, she was intercepted by Melog. The magical being had stayed away from all the excitement yesterday, and Catra was very happy to see them, greeting them with a scratch under the chin. “Hey you, how was yesterday?”

*it was enjoyable. i took some time to explore the woods; they are a very fascinating place, are they not?*

“That’s sure one way to put it,” Catra muttered, arriving in front of Scorpia’s door. Remembering what she had almost walked in on yesterday, she decided to knock, but before her fist had made contact with the door even once it was already open and Scorpia was standing there, all her things packed up and ready to go.

“Good morning, Catra,” she beamed at Catra, kneeling down to greet Melog. “How’d ya sleep? Was Adora much trouble? She seemed like she was having *quite* the night, I must say.”

“Adora is… just fine. Still sleeping it off. Where’s Perfuma? I thought…” She cut herself off before saying anything that might make things awkward.

“Oh, she’s finishing up her daily morning centering ritual in her room,” Scorpia said, apparently oblivious to what Catra may have been implying. “You ready to go?”

“Yup, got everything I need right here,” Catra said, patting Melog’s head affectionately. 

“Well, her room is on the way out of the palace, so, let’s go meet her there!” Scorpia stood up and headed off down the hallway, with Catra and Melog following close behind. 

Once the skiff reached the Fright Zone, the four walked into the building that had, until fairly recently, been the central hub of the Horde. Catra found herself walking alongside Melog a little behind Scorpia and Perfuma, who were hand in claw and chatting and giggling and laughing away in front of her. Things were fairly quiet around here these days; most of the Horde soldiers had abandoned the place back when Prime first showed up, and the rest had cleared out just before his defeat. A few people were slowly trickling back in, but within the building the trio entered, there was not a sound to be heard.

“So. Catra.” Perfuma turned around and smiled warmly at her. “Would you like to have us help you search first? Then afterwards, we can have our conversation. I can already tell by how Melog is behaving that things have been going well for you.”

“Uh, yeah, sure, let’s search,” Catra said with a shrug. “Scorpia, you got any idea where to start looking?”

“Uh, let’s see. I think… Was it this room? No, wait, I think it was over there…” Scorpia wandered in the direction of a part of the fortress that Catra was not at all familiar with, and Catra followed her with a shrug.

Several hours later, very little progress had been made. While it seemed like Shadow Weaver had kept most of her files in one location, a combination of Scorpia’s previous mishaps (“Ah, sorry about that, they’re just, reeeeeally hard to handle for me, y’know?”) and an apparent need to organize things in a way that could not possibly make sense to any currently living being on Etheria, the files on personnel were nowhere to be found, other than a singular one about Entrapta, which had the same kinds of information that was found on most of the other princesses, and had in fact been in with a category that Catra can only assume must have been “inconsequential threats” (it included a lot of names Catra did not recognize, and one other that she very much did: Sea Hawk).

“Ugh, I knew this was a dumb idea,” Catra muttered, tossing a file across the room that contained absolutely nothing that mattered to anyone anymore. Melog caught it in the air and proceeded to magically turn the entire thing into a small spray of confetti. 

*catra, i can assist you in your search, if you like. there are traces of… _her_ …* Melog’s lips curled into a snarl and their mane turned red and spiky, causing Perfuma and Scorpia to look at Catra with worried expressions. *they are on all of these, and i can reveal the connections of them all to you, if you wish.*

“Wait, really?” Catra’s ears and tail perked up. 

“Uh, what’d they say?” Scorpia looks from Catra to Melog and back with a puzzled expression on her face.

“They can use some sort of… magical trace, or something, and find where the rest of the files are.” Scorpia looked shocked. “Okay Melog, how do we do this?”

*you will need to focus on… _her_. let thoughts of her fill your mind, and of all the places that you can think that she may have gone while she was in this place.*

Catra shuddered at the thought, Melog’s color shifting very slightly from their normal calming blue to a turquoise. “Scorpia, if you could give me and flower girl here a moment.” She didn’t wait for a response, shutting her eyes and starting her breathing exercise. Over the sounds of her breaths, she heard a short, quiet conversation between the two, and then she heard the telltale sounds of Scorpia walking out of the room and the door shutting behind her. A moment or two later, she jumped very slightly as Perfuma’s hand lightly rested on her shoulder.

“What can I help you with, Catra?” Perfuma asked. _In, 6, out, 6_. She felt calmed enough for the moment to speak.

“I… in order for this to work, I have to think about… about Shadow Weaver. About all of my memories of her from here.” Melog padded over, curling up in front of Catra with their head nuzzling into her lap. 

“Ah. I see.” Catra could hear Perfuma shifting around, and opened her eyes to see Perfuma sitting next to her, her hand still resting gently on Catra’s shoulder. “May I make a suggestion?”

Catra shrugged. “Can’t hurt, I guess.” She stroked Melog’s head, feeling calmed by their purr. 

“Your memories of Shadow Weaver. They are… unpleasant, I assume.”

Catra snorted. “That’s one way to put it, I guess. She abused me for my entire life, right up until the very end of hers. I’m glad she’s gone; I don’t know whether she or… or Prime… was the worst thing to happen to me, but I have no good memories of her.”

Perfuma reached with her free hand and brushed a tear away from Catra’s eye that she hadn’t even noticed forming and stroked her face gently. “It can’t have been easy on you. I… my parents were… My father was a part of the first princess alliance, and I never knew my mother. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t even until my father was gone that I really understood who _I_ was. The people of Plumeria raised me, but until I truly became myself, I didn’t even know that I could use the magic of my people. But then one day, I saw a friend sad because her favorite flower was struggling, and I wished with all of my heart to make it better, and right there in front of us, it bloomed once again.” Perfuma brushed a tear out of her own eye, shaking her head. “My apologies, I did not mean to get so caught up in my own past. What I wanted to say is, I know Shadow Weaver did bad things to you. But what I think can help you, now and in the future, is to think about how you overcame those things. You are a strong person, and that strength did not come from nowhere. Not that you deserved any of what she did to you, but that you are more than who she thought you were. Think of what kept you going, what made you strong. And breathe.”

Catra closed her eyes again, her hand resting on Melog’s head. She thought of the time that she had been tortured by Shadow Weaver for sneaking into the Black Garnet chamber. She thought of the many, many times that Shadow Weaver had berated her for being inadequate. She thought of the time that Shadow Weaver had erased Adora’s memory after they… no, even now, that memory still was too painful.

But it led her to what was important. Adora. She was always there for Catra. Even when Catra hadn’t wanted to admit it, or even during the times when she genuinely thought that Adora was lost to her forever, she was always there. Adora may not have been perfect, and she still resented that Adora had always felt the need to throw herself into danger without consideration for her own safety, but for maybe the first time, Catra recognized how Adora had seen what she was doing for Catra.

Protecting her.

Caring for her. 

Loving her.

Making her stronger.

With the strength of the love she felt for Adora, and that she knew Adora felt for her, and had for a long time, she thought of Shadow Weaver. A sad, bitter old lady, who right up until the very end had caused pain for the both of them, kept them turned against each other, and very nearly ruined things more than half a dozen times over.

But gone now, and only able to hurt her, and Adora, through memory, which would fade, in time.

Through her carefully measured breaths, she could hear something happening. Melog shifted under her hand, a warmth emanating from them in all directions. A gasp escaped Perfuma’s lips, and Catra opened her eyes to see strange, wispy tendrils extending all over from Melog. One of them reached out and touched the pile of shreds on the floor that had been the file she had tossed to Melog earlier. A large number of them engulfed the other scattered files in the room.

And a group of them snaked their way under the door, leading elsewhere in the building. Catra heard a surprised yelp come out of Scorpia, who had clearly been waiting outside the door for her and Perfuma to be finished. “Uh, Catra? Is this… is it working?”

“Yeah, it is,” Catra said, her hand still resting on Melog’s head. “How long until it finds the files?”

*not very long, catra. your memories of her, and of your adora, were very strong indeed.* Melog’s mane had returned to its previous calm bluish color. *and… done.*

Catra raised herself to her feet, giving Perfuma a hand to help her up as well. “Thank you. I… I don’t think I could have done it without you.” She hesitated, then hugged Perfuma, a gesture that Perfuma was more than happy to return. 

“It was a pleasure to be able to help a friend,” Perfuma said, letting Catra hug her for as long as she wanted. When the hug ended, the two walked to the door.

“C’mon Scorpia, let’s go get those files.”

It didn’t take long to find the end of the trail that Melog had laid out for them. It wasn’t a room that Catra recognized; she looked at Scorpia to see if she had any idea, but her shrug said that she didn’t know the room either. The trail ended at an unassuming box in the corner. Catra reached out, about to touch it, when Melog spoke. *wait. be cautious. there is still some residual magic around this.*

“Well, can you do anything about it?” Catra asked. Melog walked up to it, sniffing it cautiously.

*unfortunately, it seems that i cannot. there is an aura of incredible power around this that would harm any who attempt to touch it, and i fear my capabilities do not match up to those of this particular spell.*

Catra clenched her fists. “Of _course_ she would do that. Can’t have anyone touching her most precious hoard of information, can she.”

“What is it, Catra?” Scorpia put her claw on Catra’s shoulder. “Is there something wrong with it?”

“Shadow Weaver protected the files. With some pretty powerful magic, apparently.” Catra’s nails unsheathed and sheathed reflexively. “Because of course _nothing_ about this can be easy.”

“Can Melog not do anything about it?” Perfuma asked, a note of worry in her voice. “They have magical powers, right?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Catra said. She stared at the stupid box, just sitting there on the floor, taunting her. Then, she had an idea. “But I think I might know someone who can. Hey Scorpia,” Catra said, seeing Scorpia perk up at her name. “Did you have anything else you wanted me to help with today?” 

“Uh, no, I uh, I can’t say that there was,” Scorpia said, scratching the back of her head. “Perfuma, can you think of anything she could help us out with?”

“Nothing that can’t wait,” Perfuma said. 

“You two have fun, then. I’ll be back tomorrow, with some backup,” Catra said, turning and walking out of the room. “Oh, and Perfuma?” She turned back around with one of her arms holding the other behind her back. “Thanks again. And thank you too, Scorpia. I appreciate having you two around as… as friends.”

Scorpia looked like she was about to cry from happiness, and at a begrudging nod from Catra, ran forward and hugged her, being careful this time not to be too suffocating. 


	3. Glimmer Helps Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer gets involved. Catra and Adora have an emotional morning together.

It was late when Catra and Melog returned to Bright Moon. The stars were out in the sky. Melog never spent very much time looking up at them, but any time Catra was out on a clear night like tonight she couldn’t help but look up with awe at how beautiful the sky was. After a lifetime spent in the Fright Zone, where the sky never looked much different no matter the time of day, and then a short time of being out in the world when it was still locked away in whatever dimension thing that Catra had never really understood, the ability to look up at the night sky and see all those other lights almost made her head hurt. 

She was so busy looking up at the night sky that, without realizing it, she walked right into the garden where it turned out Bow and Glimmer were spending some time doing the same thing, of just looking up at the sky. When their voices reached her ears, she stopped, Melog automatically cloaking the two of them for a moment. After shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she called out to the pair of them.

“Hey you two,” Catra said, Melog uncloaking before the pair walked out of the foliage.

“Hi Catra,” Bow called out to her, waving at her. “How was your time dealing with the infestation? Adora told us you were gonna be gone for the day, but she didn’t have many details.”

Catra rubbed the back of her head, having forgotten the fake excuse she’d given Adora the previous night for why she was visiting the Fright Zone. “Actually, about that. Princess, can I ask you a favor?”

Glimmer, who had clearly been dozing off while leaning on Bow’s shoulder, started awake. “Huh? Me? What could you possibly need my help with?”

“Okay, the two of you have to promise not to tell Adora about this,” Catra started. Bow and Glimmer looked at each other with mild concern, Glimmer clearly more awake now.

“Is there something wrong?” Glimmer sounded very worried, reaching out a hand to take Catra’s. “Is Scorpia okay?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that, don’t worry,” Catra said, thinking hard how best to phrase her request. “I… Okay, you know how Adora and I were raised by the Horde, and we never had… Well, really any fun, outside of training, I guess. But my point is, she never knew what her birthday was, since, I mean, what, was Shadow Weaver gonna tell her and give her something to think about outside of training? Anyway, she had a bunch of files in the Fright Zone, and we found where the personnel ones are, but they seem like they’re protected by some extremely powerful and dangerous dark magic.”

Catra saw realization dawn on Glimmer’s face. “And you want me to see if I can deal with the magic.” 

“I told Scorpia and Perfuma I would be back tomorrow; I… Well…” Catra trailed off sheepishly.

Glimmer had clearly been thinking about some magical nonsense, but at that, she snapped out of it, a smug grin creeping across her face. “You missed Adora, didn’t you,” she teased. “Go on, you look pretty tired; it might be hard to get away for very long tomorrow, but when I can, I’ll come find you, and we can go see what I can do.”

“Please, both of you, can you… I want to surprise Adora.” Catra was having trouble finding the words for what she wanted to say.

Bow stood up, putting his arm around Glimmer. “We won’t tell her, not until you say we can. Right, Glimmer?” Glimmer was clearly already lost back in her thoughts of magic, or else she was just very tired; Catra couldn’t tell for sure. “We promise,” Bow said, patting Catra on the shoulder with his free hand. 

Catra didn’t realize how tired she really was until she closed the door to her and Adora’s room. She saw Adora curled up in bed, still in her clothes from the day; Catra figured she must have fallen asleep waiting for her to get back. 

Catra silently changed into her nightwear, then sat herself down on the bed next to Adora and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Adora’s hair was down for once; Catra had been telling her to have it down more recently. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she liked seeing Adora with her hair down. It felt like a reminder that there was no expectation of having to charge off into battle suddenly, nobody needing immediate saving, no worry of Adora throwing herself recklessly into danger.

Adora, it seemed, had had a tiring day as well; even after a few moments, she did not stir at Catra’s touch. Catra nudged her waist, causing Adora to jolt awake with surprise, any worry or panic immediately fading when she saw who it was that had woken her.

“Mmmm,” Adora mumbled, wrapping her arms around Catra’s waist. “How’ws Fright Zone? ‘n Scorpia?”

“They’re doing just fine, now,” Catra said, helping Adora sit up. “Got things just about all taken care of. Might have to pop back over for a quick visit tomorrow with Sparkles, just to be sure, but other than that, we can spend all day tomorrow, just the two of us.” Adora stood up, stretching languorously, plodding over to her dresser. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Adora said, slightly muffled by the fabric of her shirt over her face as she got changed for the night.

“I love you,” Catra said, watching Adora out of the corner of her eye. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Adora’s muscles, then dropped into her stomach as she looked closer and saw some of the scars that she had caused over the years of their fighting. She leaned back onto the bed, closing her eyes, trying and failing to not think of the many times they had clashed in battle.

Catra felt the bed shift towards Adora as she sat down on the bed next to her. “I love you,” she said, taking Catra’s hand in her own. 

Catra’s mind was a bit of a blur, so she had no idea where the question that tumbled out of her came from. “How- Adora, I… I’ve wanted to know, ever since… When did you realize?”

Catra felt Adora shift a little, her fingers intertwining with Catra’s. “I… I didn’t know, that it was what I was feeling, and had felt, until… until right before. You remember, that time we were in the Crystal Castle, and it showed us all those memories? When I was going to the Heart, there was something like that, and, I saw you, and I thought it _was_ you, and in that moment I realized… I never wanted to be without you again.” At this point Catra had curled up and was resting her head in Adora’s lap, purring, with her eyes closed, just listening to her speak. “But I think the first time I knew I felt anything was… it was hardly anything, just, we were training one day, and you said something, and I looked at you, and I felt… at the time, I would’ve called it weird, but I liked you. I…” Something had caught in Adora’s voice, and Catra opened her eyes, and saw tears rolling down Adora’s cheeks. “I kept meaning to say something to you, I didn’t even know what I _would_ say, just, something… Why can’t I… Why didn’t I…”

Catra sat up, concerned. “Adora? Is everything okay?” Her girlfriend was still for a moment, then collapsed into Catra’s lap, sobbing.

“Catra, I wanted to tell you, for years, and I can think of every time that I would have done it, but… why can’t I _remember_?” Her sentences were broken up by sobs and hiccups. “What happened to me?”

Catra didn’t know what to do, so she did the first thing that came to mind: she started stroking Adora’s head, trying to help calm her down. “Adora, shh, it’s okay; what matters now is that we’re here, and we’re okay, and we’re together.” Taking Adora’s hand in her own, she carefully shifted out from under her head, and moved herself so that the two were face to face on their sides. “I never want to lose you again, and I promise you, I never will, okay?” She kissed Adora gently, pulling her in close, stroking her back, purring, everything she could think of. 

Eventually, it seemed to work. Adora’s sobs quieted, several shuddering breaths in and out, and Catra held her tightly against her. “I’m here, and I love you, and nothing will ever be able to change that.”

As Adora’s breathing evened, Catra realized that she was starting to drift off. “Good night, Adora,” she said, kissing her again. 

Adora brushed her hair out of her face, squeezing Catra. “Goodnight, Catra. And… thank you.”

Catra’s dreams that night were restless. Flashes of time spent in the Fright Zone, running around with Adora as kids, training with the rest of their squad, then the time she had spent more and more alone. She woke up in the middle of the night, the whole mess of memories swirling in her head.

She hadn’t wanted to say anything, for fear of making Adora feel even worse, but now that Adora was sleeping calmly beside her, the memory, the one she almost wished she could forget about, came to her unbidden. 

_It had only been a few weeks before what turned out to be the day Adora had left her for the Rebellion. Catra had known that their evaluation was coming up soon, the big one: the one where Adora might become a new Force Captain. She wasn’t worried about Adora forgetting about her, but she was nervous that Adora might make a new friend that would catch her eye the way Adora had caught hers for so many years, and so she was determined to make her feelings known._

_It had been a particularly grueling day of training; Lonnie and Rogelio had proved a very competent match for the team of her and Adora, despite Kyle holding the other pair back somewhat, so it took much longer than usual for her and Adora to claim victory. After cleaning herself up, she had looked for Adora to go get dinner, but surprisingly she wasn’t in any of the normal Adora places._

_Catra had gone up to the place she usually went when she wanted to think - the lookout point - and found Adora there._

_“Hey, Adora.”_

_“Hey, Catra.”_

_“What are you doing up here?”_

_She had sat down next to Adora, their legs dangling off the edge._

_“Just… thinking, y’know?”_

_Catra had taken a deep breath._

_“Adora, I… I have something I want to tell you.”_

_Adora had turned towards her, her face…_ Catra couldn’t remember her face.

_“What is it, Catra?”_

_“I… If…_ When _you become Force Captain, you won’t forget about me, will you?”_

_“Of course I won’t, Catra; you’re my friend, and even as Force Captain, I'll be in charge of our squad.”_

_“But…” Catra had taken a deep breath. “What if… what if I want to be more?”_

_Why was it so hard to remember?_ Catra thought… _Adora had turned back towards the railing, her face still… “Catra, I didn’t think you wanted to be a Force Captain.”_

_“Adora, that’s not what I meant,” Catra had said, struggling to find the words. “I mean… more with you . I don’t know, it’s hard to describe how I feel, but… You mean so much to me, and I care about you, and…”_

The memory got extremely fuzzy, and then Catra could remember talking to Shadow Weaver. _“Catra, dear, Adora is very focused on her goals. You should try to be more supportive of her, don’t you think?”_ That… that didn’t seem right, but it was what Catra remembered, so, it had to have happened that way, right?

_The next day, Adora had said nothing more, so Catra had decided that she wouldn’t speak of her feelings again._

_Why does this feel so… wrong?_ Catra thought to herself. _Adora may not have had the words for it, but she knew how she felt, so why didn’t she say so?_

As she drifted back off to sleep, the thought swirled around her mind. _Is that what really happened?_

The next morning, Catra was the first to wake up. Light was streaming through the curtains over the window, and she could hear sounds around the castle as others were up and about for the day. She lay there for a while, thoughts still swirling from the night before.

She felt a hand on her shoulder; Adora was pulling her over towards her. She rolled over easily, and was surprised by a good-morning kiss. “Hey you,” Adora said, still a little drowsy. “I love you.”

Catra kissed her back, letting out a little chuckle. “Love you too,” she said, nuzzling into Adora’s neck. “Sleep okay?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Adora said, sitting up with a stretch. “Got anything you’d like to do today, aside from your little excursion with Glimmer?”

“I was thinking… Maybe you could brush my hair for me?” Catra offered. “It’s been so long, and I’ve really been meaning to, but since you’re here and all…”

Adora got an affronted look on her face, but it didn’t even make it to her eyes, which were shining at the idea. “Hmm, okay,” she said, “but you have to do something for me in return, okay?”

“Deal,” Catra said, not even caring what she was agreeing to. She leapt out of bed and dug around in her things for a moment, finding the brush she was looking for and making her way back over to the bed. She plopped herself down right in front of Adora, tilting her head forward expectantly.

Before taking the brush from Catra, Adora ran her hands through her girlfriend’s hair, and with a series of clicks, deactivated and removed the magical hairpins that had been in there for several days. “Oh, totally forgot about those,” Catra said, holding out her hand for Adora to drop them into. “Would’ve made for an unpleasant time.”

Without even having appeared to hear Catra’s words, Adora reached over to her other hand and took the brush from it. Catra shivered in anticipation, and was rewarded moments later when the brush made contact with her hair. Another shiver ran down her body, this time one of pleasure, and she started purring and kneading at the bed with her hands. Adora worked silently and carefully, cautious to not pull at any knots in Catra’s hair when she encountered them. 

It had been a long time since the two of them had done anything like this. Ever since Prime’s defeat, most of their time alone together had been spent just enjoying the casual intimacy that they no longer had to hold back from. They had cuddled, and snuggled, and kissed more times than Catra could count, and she had loved every moment of it.

But there was something special about the experience she was having again, for the first time in years, at that very moment. The casual touches that Adora made, seemingly without even thinking, that expressed how she cared that Catra was having a comfortable, enjoyable experience. The tension and release of the brush, pulling through her hair, never painful, but always a reminder that she was there, and Adora was with her, just like she had hoped would happen for so long. Time seemed to stand still, Catra relaxing more and more as Adora worked, her hair being impressively tangled in spite of its relatively short length. 

It took Catra almost ten whole seconds to realize Adora had finished, not even being brought out of her reverie by the soft kiss Adora planted on her cheek as she handed the brush back to Catra. “You enjoy yourself, kitten?” The attempted term of endearment was what finally caused Catra to shake off the overpowering vibes that had nearly put her to sleep. 

“Yeah, sorry Adora, I dunno about that one,” Catra said, standing up and stretching more deeply than she had in days. “Double Trouble used to call me that, and I’d rather not be reminded of that whole mess.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Adora apologized. “I promise one of these days I’ll figure out the right one, and then you’ll  _ never _ be able to get me to call you anything else for at least a week.” She let out a laugh, and laid back onto the bed as Catra walked back after having carefully put her brush away. “Now, I believe you promised me… What was it that you agreed to exactly?”

Catra blushed, despite herself. A glint of mischief appeared in Adora’s eyes. “Oh that’s right, I remember now: you were so eager, you agreed without even knowing what it was I wanted, didn’t you?”

“Ugh, shut up, dummy,” Catra said, poking her on the cheek and rolling her eyes. “What stupid thing did you have in mind?”

Adora said nothing for a few moments. Catra looked down at her face, and she was blushing. “W-what?” Catra said, suddenly nervous, blushing a little bit herself.

“Do you remember, when we were kids, and you would just,” Adora said, quickly turning over so her back was towards Catra, “work out your energy by, uh, taking it out on my back?” The words sparked a flash of recognition in Catra; before she had really learned how to behave herself, at least to the standards that Shadow Weaver expected, she would almost massage Adora’s back, just trying to work the energy out through her hands. At the time, she of course had had no idea what she was doing, but Adora had quietly let her calm herself down like that from time to time until she had learned other, less visible ways of releasing the same energy.

“Oh, is that it?” Catra asked. She let out an internal sigh of relief; she had been worried that Adora would ask her to do something ridiculous, or embarrassing, or… She cut off her train of thought before it went any further. “Sure, I can do that.”

“Can you… can you close your eyes for a sec?” Adora asked, sitting up and looking right into her eyes. Catra nodded, closing them, taking the moment to breathe a few deep breaths. After a little bit of fabric rustling, Catra felt Adora lie back down on the bed next to her, then felt her bunch up the blankets around herself. “Okay, I’m ready,” Adora said, her voice muffled.

Catra opened her eyes, and saw her girlfriend face-down on the bed, her bare back entirely exposed, with the blanket pressed up against her sides. She tried a couple of times to say something, but every attempt just fizzled out before it reached her mouth. With her eyes half-closed, she gingerly reached out a hand and placed it on the center of Adora’s back. The heat coming off of her girlfriend surprised her, and she scooted nearer and put both hands flat against Adora’s back. 

Still not really looking directly at what she was doing, Catra did her best to imitate her long-buried habit. At first, she just moved her hands around aimlessly, applying pressure at random, still not really watching what she was doing. One of her fingertips brushed over a scar, and Catra stopped herself, taking a deep breath and really looking at Adora’s back.

There were not as many scars as she had expected; it seemed like many of them had been healed away by the magic of She-Ra at some point or another. Catra knew that many, if not all, of the scars had been caused by her. A few she traced a finger over tenderly, recalling the times when she was younger when, not knowing the damage she could cause, she had swiped at Adora. The first time, when Adora had cried out in pain, Catra had felt terrible, immediately looking for someone to help tend the wound. After that, Adora had borne the pain silently, and as Catra came into her own and understood her own strength, she had figured out how to hold back, making it almost an instinct to not do more than barely graze Adora’s skin. 

Catra had evidently gotten lost in her own thoughts, as Adora lifted her head from the pillow it had been pressed into. “Catra? Everything okay?” Her words shook Catra out of the reverie she had been in, and she patted Adora’s head. 

“No, not everything,” she said, almost surprising herself. “But we can talk about it later, okay?” Adora appeared to not know what to say, so as Catra resumed her massaging, she simply lowered her head back down, letting out a sigh. This time, Catra was fully conscious of what she was doing. She traced her hands quickly over Adora’s back, finding the knotted muscles.  _ Wow, her back is basically just one big knot; no wonder she has so much trouble relaxing properly _ , Catra thought to herself. Once she had a better idea of where to give the most attention, she got to work. Her hands moved from spot to spot, tenderly massaging the taut muscles, sometimes applying a little extra pressure to really get the tension to go away. As she worked, she could hear muffled sounds of relief from Adora. Her hands almost started to work on their own, seeking out the muscles that needed their attention and applying pressure in just the right ways to get ever more happy noises out of Adora.

“Why did you leave the scars?” The question slipped out of Catra; she had been thinking about it ever since Adora had asked her if she was okay, and the near-trance she had been in seemed to have lowered her guard enough to just go ahead and ask the question.

“I did get rid of some,” Adora said, muffled at first until she turned her head to the side. “She-Ra has a tendency to do that for me.”

“I noticed,” Catra said. Her hands were still hard at work, now moving up to Adora’s neck and shoulders. “But… why leave some?”

“It was… my way of reminding myself,” Adora said, letting out a few grunts as Catra started to work at some especially tense muscle areas. “I knew I hurt you, by leaving, and while I don’t regret doing it, I… it almost seemed fair, somehow; I wanted reminders that, while I hoped things could still go back to normal, that I had hurt you, and… and it hurt me, too.” Catra saw a tear form at the corner of Adora’s eye. 

Catra had no idea what to say. Her hands, no longer moving subconsciously, traced some of the scars that she knew had been made while the two of them had been separated. Fighting. Torn apart, never knowing if they would be back together, if Catra could ever forgive Adora for what she’d done, if they would ever be friends again. “I’m… all done,” Catra said, still tracing her fingers over Adora’s back. “With, uh, with the, what you asked me for, I mean,” she said, lying down next to Adora and staring into her eyes.

Adora let out a long sigh, wiping the tear away from her face. “Thank you, Catra. It felt… really nice.” She rolled over; Catra shut her eyes as soon as she saw Adora start to turn. “Oh, oops, right,” Adora said, and Catra felt her pull the blanket up and around herself. When Adora planted a kiss on her lips, Catra opened her eyes again, and kissed her back. 

“I know things aren’t going to just magically be better, for anyone,” Catra said. Adora shifted herself on the bed, allowing Catra to move in close to her. “I don’t expect most people to forgive me anytime soon; I did a lot of bad shit, and even helping you save the whole universe doesn’t mean that I didn’t hurt people. Including you,” she said, drawing in a deep and slightly shaky breath. “But as long as I have you here, I… I want to work to make things right, with you, and with everyone else.”

Adora pulled her in for a very tight hug, which Catra reciprocated, squeezing herself tightly against her amazing girlfriend. “Catra, I love you,” Adora said, yawning and snuggling up against her. “I’ll be here for you, and I’ll support you with all my heart.” Her breathing slowed slightly and evened out.

“I love you too, Adora.”

Sometime around mid-afternoon, the pair were awakened from their slumber by the sound of Glimmer appearing in the room. “Hey Catra, you ready to- oops!” She vanished very quickly, then audibly re-appeared outside the door, knocking on it.

“Sparkles, you can come in, it’s fine, we were just napping,” Catra called out. Adora was still half-asleep and had her arms wrapped around Catra. The pink princess cautiously opened the door, peeking inside to make sure that Catra was telling the truth, before stepping inside. “Give me a minute, and we can go.”

“Mmm, hi Glimmer,” Adora murmured from the bed, clearly ready to fall back asleep as soon as the other two had left. “You two have fun, mkay?”

“Sure thing, princess,” Catra said, planting a kiss on Adora’s forehead. She took Glimmer’s hand, and mentally prepared herself. 

A few moments later, the two were in the Fright Zone. Catra let out the breath she had been holding, proud of herself for how well she handled being teleported this time.

“Okay, Catra, where is this… magic box?” Glimmer asked, looking around. 

“Follow me.”

When the two of them walked into the room, things suddenly seemed darker. This time, Catra could feel the malicious aura coming off the box. She took a step towards it, then smacked her forehead with her hand. “Can’t believe I forgot. Princess, can you go bring Melog here? Just tell them I want them to be here, for safety.” Glimmer looked confused for a moment. “They were the one who found this, and they kept me from touching it and injuring myself. Just… figured it couldn’t hurt to have them around.”

Glimmer shrugged, then vanished. Catra sat in the corner of the room opposite the box. Being so close to it, what may have been the very final remnants of Shadow Weaver on the planet, she couldn’t help but shiver. _It’ll be fine_ , she told herself. _Sparkles’ll be able to deal with the magic, no problem, and then we’ll have the info we need_.

A minute or two later, Glimmer re-appeared with Melog in tow. Catra’s companion appeared to handle the teleportation process much better than herself; they seemed unfazed by the process, simply walking over to the box and sniffing at it again. 

*i shall assist the queen. if i change color, it means what she is doing is dangerous, and she should stop.* Catra repeated the information to Glimmer, who was already starting to draw a complicated pattern in the air, and simply nodded with affirmation. 

As Glimmer worked, still forming the first spell, something stirred in Catra’s memory. As the circle moved toward the box, Melog stayed their usual calming blue, and so the spell appeared safe. As it made contact, Glimmer gasped, her knees buckling.

“Princess? You okay?” Catra leapt to her feet and was at Glimmer’s side in moments.

“I- I’m fine,” Glimmer said, her breathing strained. “It’s just… this might take a while. And we may need more help. I’ll be right back.” She vanished again. Melog stared at Catra, who shrugged.

Not a minute later, Glimmer was back once again, this time with Casta and her father in tow. When the trio appeared, the older two sorcerers visibly reacted, stumbling a little at the energy in the room. “Glimmer, what in the world is going on here?” her father asked, taking a moment to recover.

“Shadow Weaver left this behind,” Glimmer said, pointing to the box, which was now covered in a very visible black cloud. “And Catra has requested that we help her get inside it.”

Casta moved over towards the box, but was stopped by Melog. “Don’t get too close to it,” Catra said. “It’s incredibly dangerous. Melog is helping us stay safe.” Casta looked to Glimmer, slightly incredulous, but when Glimmer nodded, she took a step back, starting to cast a spell that looked much simpler than the one Glimmer had used already.

“Aunt Casta, I already cast a Spell of Discernment on it,” Glimmer said, interrupting her. She started telling the other two sorcerers about the magic that it seemed like Shadow Weaver had cast; Catra didn’t understand much of what was said, but by the looks on their faces, it was nasty stuff. 

When Glimmer had finished her explanation, her father spoke up for the first time. “Glimmer, this could take days, if not weeks, to safely deal with. Do you want us to handle this for you?”

“It’s for me,” Catra said, almost surprising Casta and Micah. “Well, really, it’s for Adora, but I’m doing it for her, so you’d be doing it for me, or for her, or, well, whatever. Anyway, Sparkles, do you think they can handle it?”

Glimmer was thinking carefully. “I can’t spend the amount of time away I’d need to deal with this, and both of you have been looking for some way to keep yourselves occupied, so it seems like a perfect match to me. Just… be careful, okay?” The two nodded, already turning to their work. 

“Oh, and, when it gets close to being done, can you give me a heads-up?” Catra said. “I’d like to be here for it.” She didn’t say it out loud, but she wanted to see the last memories of Shadow Weaver leave this world forever with her own two eyes. “Melog, stay with them, and make sure they don’t get themselves killed, okay?”

Melog inclined their head. *i shall do this thing for you, and for your adora.* 

The two sorcerers were already hard at work, speaking back and forth and weaving all sorts of complicated-looking spells in the air. “Hey princess,” Catra said, catching Glimmer’s attention. “I’ll go let Scorpia know what’s going on, so that these two can stay here as long as they need, and then let’s get back to Bright Moon, yeah?”


	4. Catra Has a Bad Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra and Glimmer have a chat. The magic is dispelled.

Catra had never liked waiting, but when there was nothing she could do to make things go any faster, it was even worse. She tried to keep herself busy as much as possible. Entrapta had asked for her help on upgrading the ship, but after spending much of the time standing around occasionally being asked to find a tool, Catra had decided that there were better things to do with her time. Every couple of days, someone would come to Bright Moon asking for help with a small dispute - usually about some former Horde soldiers attempting to move in to somewhere without much consideration for who was already there - and Catra tended to jump at the chance to help. The missions never took very long, since most of the smaller-time troublemakers were easily intimidated by Catra, and any time it seemed like things would be at all serious, she just asked Adora to come along as She-Ra and nobody seemed to want to put up much of a fight.

For the first few days after the work of disarming Shadow Weaver’s spells, Catra received daily updates via Glimmer. After a few days in a row of “nothing much, still hard at work,” she told Glimmer to only let her know when things were nearly finished, and continued throwing herself into the work of returning Etheria to stability. 

Things continued much the same for a few weeks, until one morning where Catra and Adora were awoken by the sound of rapid knocking on the door. “Catra,” Glimmer’s voice called out from the other side of the door, “can we have a word?” Adora looked at her quizzically, Catra responding with a shrug. 

“Gimme a minute, Sparkles, and I’ll be right out,” Catra called back. She rolled herself out of the warm, comforting embrace of Adora’s arms with a sigh, and got herself dressed. 

Shutting the door behind her as she left the room, the moment Catra turned towards Glimmer she knew what was happening. “Dad said they’d be done today,” Glimmer whispered. “Do you wanna go now?”

Catra shook her head. “It’s the day Adora and I like to go for a walk in the woods together, before we really get started for the day. Once we’re done, I’ll come find you, and we can go, okay?”

She was surprised by the hug that Glimmer enveloped her in. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you, getting used to… well, all this,” she said, gesturing at their surroundings. “But Adora has been happier than I ever remember seeing her during the war, and we have you to thank for that.” 

“Woah, princess, where is this coming from?” Catra had to work to keep her voice down with the surprise that had crept into it. 

“I dunno,” Glimmer shrugged. “I just… I really care about Adora, and I’m glad there’s someone else around who I know does the same, and…” She trailed off awkwardly. Catra saw her fidgeting with her hands, and her eyes widened.

“Wait… You and…  _ her _ ?” The shocked look on Glimmer’s face, which quickly turned to a blush that Glimmer hid behind her hands, told Catra that she was right. “When did-” She was interrupted by Glimmer grabbing her and the two of them suddenly being on the roof of the castle. 

Catra fell to her knees, covering her mouth. “Sparkles, what have I said about-” She looked up at Glimmer and cut herself off. The princess was crying. Catra stood, still a little unsteady, and went over to put a hand on her shoulder. She was shocked at how quickly Glimmer turned towards her and hugged her tightly, shaking a little with her sobs.

Catra was nowhere near experienced at this kind of thing, but she didn’t know what else to do. “Let’s try sitting down,” she offered, not attempting to pull herself away from the princess. Glimmer accepted the offer, drawing a few shaky breaths as she lowered herself to the ground. “Now breathe with me, okay?” She nodded, closing her eyes. Catra counted aloud, helping her to calm herself down. After a few cycles, Glimmer seemed to have regained her composure. “Now,” Catra said, with nothing but warmth in her voice, “do you want to talk about it?”

Glimmer sniffled a little, brushing a tear off her cheek. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” She shook her head, shifting like she was about to stand up, but stopped when Catra took her hand. 

“You don’t have to talk about it with me if you don’t want to, but it should be someone, okay?” Catra didn’t really know what she was doing, but she thought of her talks with Perfuma, and did her best to emulate what the flower princess would say to her in this situation. “It’s not wise to keep your feelings for another bottled up, especially if they are positive. The world could use more happiness in it.”

Catra opened her eyes and saw Glimmer looking at her with a  _ very _ confused expression on her face. “Who are you and what did you do with Catra?” she asked, letting out a laugh. Catra saw some of the tension leave her face. “You sounded an awful lot like Perfuma just then.”

“Yeah, well, she’s been helping me out, and, I just figured I may as well try, since it seemed like you needed it,” Catra said, looking to her side sheepishly. She looked back at Glimmer when she felt her squeeze her hands.

“I guess I did,” Glimmer admitted. “I just… I know the two of you are together, and I know how happy that makes her, and I already have Bow, but…”

“Glimmer, it’s okay.” Catra saw the surprise on Glimmer’s face at the use of her name. “You and Bow were the first people she met after… leaving me, and I know she cares for you and appreciates all that you did for her.” She left it unsaid that she had no idea whether Adora felt the same way that it seemed Glimmer did, but it seemed like the princess had gotten the message. “She loves me, and I love her, but I know that you’ll always be one of her greatest friends.”

“Catra…” Glimmer seemed at a loss for words. She took a deep breath, then slowly stood herself up, offering a hand to Catra to do the same. “Thank you,” she said, and this time Catra was prepared for the hug.

“Anytime,” Catra responded. “Besides, I can hardly blame you; my girlfriend  _ is _ pretty hot, after all.” That got a big laugh out of Glimmer. “Okay, let’s get me back down to Adora before she starts worrying that we disappeared on her.”

It was early afternoon when Catra and Glimmer appeared in the Fright Zone. To be as safe as possible, they had teleported in a good distance away from their final destination, and as soon as they sparkled back into existence, Catra felt a cold chill run down her spine, and she shivered involuntarily.

“You can feel it too?” Glimmer asked, looking very unsettled. “I hope things are going okay in there.”

“It should be fine,” Catra responded, starting the short walk to the box. “If it wasn’t, I would be able to feel it through Melog.” She heard Glimmer following behind her; the princess’s breathing was unsteady.  _ For even me to be able to feel it like this, there must be a hell of a lot of powerful shit going on in there _ .

When they reached the doorway, Catra felt ice in her stomach, and a soft hum in her head. The room seemed to be nearly pitch black, the only light emanating from the magic of the two sorcerers and from Melog, who raised their head in greeting as Catra and Glimmer entered the room.

“Good, you’re just in time,” Micah said, not turning away from his work. “We waited for you to get here; once this last spell is cast, this should all be over.” 

“Do you need me at all?” Glimmer asked, her voice very worried. 

“Glimmer dear, we’re-” Casta started to speak, but Micah cut her off.

“Any additional protection you can give us, we’ll take it,” he said, his voice straining a little. “If all goes well, it should dissipate harmlessly, but you should be ready at the first sign of trouble to get us all the hell out of here.” Glimmer nodded, moving over to put a hand on both of the sorcerer’s shoulders. Catra moved over near them as well, putting a hand on Glimmer’s shoulder, and Melog raised themself off the floor and padded over, wrapping their tail around Glimmer’s leg.

A few moments later, Micah turned to Casta, who nodded. “Okay everyone, here we go,” he said, slowly pushing the spell towards the box. Catra felt her head start to ache. She was about to say something, when suddenly-

The spell passed over the box, and all of the darkness in the room began to fade. Everyone, even Melog, let out a sigh of relief. Casta moved forward to pick it up, but Glimmer stopped her. “Catra? Can you have Melog check it one more time, just to make sure it’s completely safe?”

Catra didn’t need to say a word. Melog padded forward, sniffing at the box, circling it, keeping a little ways away from it. Finally, after several tense moments, they turned to Catra. *it is safe. there are no more traces of magic to be found here.*

Catra exhaled again, walking forward to finally open the stupid box. It was packed full of dozens, if not hundreds, of small files, each with a little number label on it. She could hear Glimmer having a conversation with the two sorcerers, but mostly tuned it out, thumbing through each file and tossing it aside when she found it wasn’t what she was looking for.

After a few boring minutes of searching, Catra found what she wanted. Cadet 515. She opened the file, and Adora’s face was staring back at her. Catra scanned it desperately. 

“No, no, no no no,” Catra said, looking for something, anything, but not finding it. She jumped as Glimmer put her hand on her shoulder. 

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Glimmer asked. 

“It’s… it’s not here,” Catra said, flopping onto her back in defeat. “This is Adora’s file, but... “

Glimmer reached a hand out, and Catra handed her the file. She scanned it over for a few moments, then almost started to speak, but stopped herself, but then went ahead anyway. “Uh… Catra? Do you have any idea what an… IOF is?”

“Sure, it’s an incident of fraternization.” Catra looked up from the floor at Glimmer’s puzzled face. “As cadets, we were forbidden from showing any affection for each other; any instances of it would be reported to our commanders, and we would receive… retribution for it.”

“Then why does Adora have so many of them?”

Catra was on her feet in a moment, looking at the paper in Glimmer’s hand. Sure enough, there were almost a dozen listed IOFs on her record. “What? But… that doesn’t make any sense, I… she would’ve never, or she at least would’ve told me about…”

The feeling in Catra’s head had gone from an ache to a throb. She dug through the box, finding a file labeled “IOF records,” and scanned it. Sure enough, the same number of them listed “Cadet 515” along with “Cadet 1113,” with one final one at the bottom of “Cadet 1113 initiating with Cadet 515, punishment given, no further incidents expected.” Catra dug through the box once again, quickly finding that file, and opened it to-

“Catra? Are you okay?” Glimmer’s voice sounded distant. Catra realized her vision was starting to go black. “Catra? Catra?!?” 

It was her. The last thought that passed through her mind before she sunk into the depths of unconsciousness, was of the face in that file. Cadet 1113: Catra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> general idea of "catra and adora had actually expressed feelings for each other, but shadow weaver wiped their minds" inspired by the fic "carry our bodies safe to shore" by themoonsneverseenmebefore.


	5. Memories, Restored

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra hurts, but she finally remembers. So does Adora.

Catra awoke to a searing pain in her head, the bright lights of Bright Moon, and the soft murmurs of her friends. She was on her bed, she could tell by the familiar feel of the blanket she was currently on top of, but she couldn’t see much else with how much the light hurt to look at. “A-adora?” she said weakly, reaching an arm out to her side.

Within moments, she felt the touch of her girlfriend’s hand on her shoulder, then Adora’s head on her chest as she was cradled. “Catra, are you okay?” Adora said, her voice very shaky. 

“Can you… turn the lights down?” Catra croaked out, her throat dry. “Hurts…”

She felt Adora move away from her, then heard a short conversation between her and Glimmer. Catra could hear the sound of a spell being cast, and then, blessedly, the light in the room dimmed, allowing her to finally open her eyes and sit up. She saw Adora and Glimmer, of course, and Bow was sitting on a stool near the door. “Glimmer? What happened…”

Glimmer walked over to the bed and carefully took Catra’s hand. “You… you passed out, and weren’t responding, so I teleported you back here.” Glimmer’s look told Catra that the princess had not told Adora where they had been, or what they had been up to. “Are you okay?”

Catra groaned, lying back down. “Head… hurts…” She tried to think about what she had seen, but doing so just caused another pulse of pain to pierce through her head, and she gasped, clutching the sides of her head.

In a moment, Adora had transformed into She-Ra, kneeling next to the bed. She put her hands on Catra’s head and closed her eyes with concentration. Catra felt the familiar tingle of the healing energy swirl around her head. Suddenly, she was somewhere else.

_ It was after a training session. Catra had asked for a moment to clean herself up, and walked into the locker room to check her face in the mirror. She heard the door open, and called out “Just a minute, Adora, I’ll be right there,” and turned around to see a very nervous Adora standing just inside the door, which shut behind her. “Adora? Are you okay?” Catra rushed to her side, feeling her forehead with the back of her hand. “You’re warm, are you sick? Do you need me to cover for you?” _

_ “C-catra!” The shakiness in Adora’s voice surprised Catra. Both of them had been sick before, and they would always cover for each other and make sure that nobody could take advantage of their weakness in any way, but right now, Adora didn’t seem sick, despite the temperature of her forehead, and how red her cheeks looked. Catra took a step back and sat down on the bench. Adora followed her lead, sitting right next to her. “Catra, I… I…” Adora took her hand, looking down at it, very pointedly avoiding looking directly at Catra’s face. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, I can’t stop… thinking about you.” _

_ “Well, who else is there around to think about?” Catra asked, lifting Adora’s head to face her. “I mean, like, the rest of our squad, I guess, but there’s not many other people around who care about us, so why would you waste your time thinking about them anyway?” _

_ “No, that’s…” Adora’s eyes shifted to the side, still not wanting to look directly at Catra. “Catra. We’re best friends, right?” _

_ “Uh, duh?” _

_ “What if… what if I wanted us to be more? I… I don’t even know what more would be, but… whatever it is, Catra, I want us to be that.” _

_ Catra’s heart nearly stopped beating. “Adora, what… what are you saying?” _

_ Adora finally looked her in the eyes. Catra couldn’t look away. Their gazes locked for what felt like forever… _

_ And then the door opened, and Shadow Weaver walked in. “Adora, I hear you performed-” She froze in her tracks, staring at the two cadets before her, and then everything was a blur. _

Over and over, similar scenes played out in her mind’s eye, in what could not have been more than instants. Her and Adora, alone, Adora trying to express how she felt, Shadow Weaver interrupting, and everything going blurry. Then, one final memory, different from the others. This one, as soon as it began, Catra recognized it. 

_ It had been a particularly grueling day of training; Lonnie and Rogelio had proved a very competent match for the team of her and Adora, despite Kyle holding the other pair back somewhat, so it took much longer than usual for her and Adora to claim victory. After cleaning herself up, she had looked for Adora to go get dinner, but surprisingly she wasn’t in any of the normal Adora places. _

_ Catra went up to the place she usually went when she wanted to think - the lookout point - and found Adora there. _

_ “Hey, Adora.” _

_ “Hey, Catra.” _

_ “What are you doing up here?” _

_ She sat down next to Adora, their legs dangling off the edge. _

_ “Just… thinking, y’know?” _

_ Catra took a deep breath. _

_ “Adora, I… I have something I want to tell you.” _

_ Adora turned towards her, her face hopeful. _

_ “What is it, Catra?” _

_ “I… If… When you become Force Captain, you won’t forget about me, will you?” _

_ “Of course I won’t, Catra; you’re my friend.” _

_ “But…” Catra took a deep breath. “What if… what if I want to be more?” _

_ Adora turned back towards the railing and swallowed audibly. “Catra, I didn’t think you wanted to be a Force Captain.” _

_ “Adora, that’s not what I meant,” Catra said, struggling to find the words. “I mean… more with you. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe how I feel, but… You mean so much to me, and I care about you, and…” She felt tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.  _

_ She was surprised to find Adora embracing her moments later. “You… you feel the same way? I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long, kept meaning to, but never going through with it.” _

_ Catra turned towards her friend, the person she cared most about in the world, and found her smiling, blushing, and trembling very slightly. “Well, good thing I’m here, to rescue you from yourself, right?” she said, laughing a little. “You don’t have to do everything yourself.” _

_ “So… what do we do now?” Adora asked, suddenly bashful. _

_ Catra took the initiative. “I… a few months ago, I saw some of the other cadets do… something,” she said, trying to keep her giddiness under control. “They got written up for it, an IOF, so clearly it’s something that we’re not supposed to do, and…” She trailed off, just looking at Adora’s beautiful face.  _

_ “How does it work?” Adora asked, her voice slightly hoarse. _

_ “Well, you just…” Catra took Adora’s face in her hand, then leaned in and put her lips against Adora’s.  _

_ They stayed like that for a few moments, just breathing gently, and then Adora put her hand on Catra’s face and kissed her back. After a few more moments, both of them pulled away; Adora’s face was very red, as was Catra’s, though it was harder to tell. A comfortable silence descended over the pair, each looking at the other longingly. Adora took Catra’s hand, and the touch felt electric to Catra. Then, with horror, she realized it wasn’t just a sensation; she couldn’t move, and Adora turned to look behind them and gasped. _

Catra didn’t need to remember the rest consciously; with the false memory still lingering in her head, she could connect the dots and figure out that Shadow Weaver had altered the memory, had blocked the others out, had done everything she could to keep the pair from becoming close like…

Like they had both wanted. Catra, for so many years, and Adora for many of her own.

Catra opened her eyes, looking at the girl she loved, still glowing with the power that had driven them apart and then brought them closer together than she had ever dared to hope they would be, and she smiled.

“Hey, Adora.”

Adora opened her eyes, seeing Catra’s smiling face looking back up at her. “Catra? Is… is everything okay?”

Catra engulfed her in a hug, pulling her girlfriend in tight against herself, and purred uncontrollably. “I finally remember, Adora. Shadow Weaver tried so hard to make us forget, to push us apart, but I remember. Can you remember?”

Adora returned to her normal appearance, the shift giving her enough room to pull away from Catra a little and look her in the eyes with confusion. “Remember what?”

Catra looked to Glimmer, receiving a confused look in response. “Sparkles, can you get me that file? I think you know which one.” Glimmer’s eyes widened with recognition, and she vanished, reappearing moments later with the piece of paper in her hand, which she handed to Adora.

Adora took a few moments to scan it over. “Who are… Cadets 515 and 1113? That’s…” She blushed a little, despite herself. “That’s a lot of IOFs.”

“Adora, that’s us. Remember what you told me about? How you always wanted to tell me how you felt, even though you didn’t have the words for it?” Catra saw the spark of recognition in Adora’s eyes. “You  _ did _ tell me,” she whispered, hugging Adora in close again. “Shadow Weaver blocked it out of our memories, but I finally remember, Adora.”

Catra felt Adora go limp in her arms. She carefully lowered her girlfriend to the floor, then moved herself down next to her.

“Is she gonna be okay?” Glimmer said, a note of worry in her voice.

“She’ll be fine,” Catra said confidently. “She might be out for a bit; remembering things like that can apparently take a bit of time, and is not the most fun experience, but…” She looked down at Adora’s face, peaceful aside from the occasional twitch of an eyebrow. “Adora’s strong. She’ll be fine soon. And I’ll be here for her.”

“Catra”?

The sound of Adora’s voice snapped Catra out of her dozing. In moments, she was holding Adora’s hand, right by her side. “Right here, Adora. How are you feeling?”

Adora groaned and coughed a couple times. “Right now? I feel like shit,” she said, rubbing her temple with her free hand. The unexpected profanity caught Catra off guard, and she couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Catra… I remember all of it. Every single time. I’m… I’m so sorry, I never meant to-”

Catra stopped her with a finger on her lips. “Adora, you have nothing to be sorry for. None of it was your fault, and it wasn’t mine either. It was Shadow Weaver, and her sick obsession with making you into her perfect leader and keeping me down.” She helped Adora sit up, giving her a glass of water, which Adora drank down greedily. “But she’s gone now, and with her meddling out of her heads, she can’t stop us from being ourselves any more.” 

“How did you even find out about all this? Where did that file come from?” Adora pushed herself to her feet, then collapsed onto the bed and hugged a pillow very tightly. 

Catra thought hard for a moment, then decided it was time to tell her. “Adora, I… I didn’t want to tell you this, at least not yet, but… ever since Glimmer’s birthday, I’ve been working to figure out what yours was. I wanted to surprise you with it, since I knew neither of us ever know what a birthday even was, let alone when ours were.” She climbed up onto the bed next to Adora, wrapping her arms around her waist. “We found the file in the Fright Zone, after dealing with a bunch of dangerous magic Shadow Weaver had left behind to protect it, but… I’m sorry, Adora, we… I couldn’t find your birthday. You had a file, but there was nothing listed about it. I guess Shadow Weaver just didn’t know, and couldn’t be bothered to figure it out.”

The two lay there in silence for a while, Catra cuddling Adora from behind, almost unconsciously nuzzling against Adora’s neck. Catra felt the call of sleep beckoning to her. “G’night, Adora,” she whispered, giving her girlfriend a kiss on the cheek and then drifting off to sleep.


	6. Love

Catra awoke to a beam of sunlight across her face. She reached out next to her in the bed, but Adora wasn’t there. She sat up, yawning, and saw Adora pacing. “What’s got you all worked up today?” Catra asked, stretching so hard that her muscles started to shake a little bit at the strain. When Adora saw that she was awake, she went over to the door to the room, poking her head out into the hallway. 

“Bow, she’s awake; did you find Entrapta yet?”

“Not yet,” Catra heard from the hallway. “She must be busy with the upgrades to the ship right now; she didn’t answer her pad at all.”

Catra quickly changed into her outfit for the day. “Adora?” she asked, walking over to her girlfriend and putting a hand on her shoulder. When Adora turned towards her, Catra was shocked by how exhausted she looked. “Adora, did you get any sleep? What is up with you?”

“I just…” Adora let out a long sigh, slumping down onto the bed. “I felt so bad that you put yourself into so much danger for me, and I spent all night figuring out what we could do, and then finally I had an idea. Bow,” she said, calling out the door, “we’ll meet you there, okay? You can explain what’s going on to Entrapta better than I can.”

“Got it,” Bow said, and Catra heard him walk away down the hallway. 

“Adora,” Catra said firmly, “we are not going anywhere or doing anything until you get a little rest, okay? I’m fine, no permanent damage.” She sat down on the bed next to Adora, guiding her girlfriend’s head down into her lap and tenderly rubbing Adora’s shoulder. “Now, get some sleep, and then…” She stopped herself; she could hear the even breathing that meant that Adora had already drifted off. 

Catra let Adora sleep for a while; she had gotten up so that she could be more comfortable than just sitting on the bed, and Adora didn’t react any more than to just hug the pillow that Catra put under her head in place of her lap. She spent the time just thinking about the memories that Adora had helped her restore. Her memory had always been extremely clear and accurate, so it had been an unpleasant experience to realize that pieces of it had been so cleanly blocked away by more of Shadow Weaver’s horrible manipulation. Not to mention the memory that Shadow Weaver had altered; the very thought of having her mind be poked around in and messed with like that made her sick to her stomach. She knew it would take time to properly deal with the mess of emotions that were churning in her mind and her gut, but for the moment, she just practiced accepting how they made her feel and not letting it affect her more than she wanted it to.

After a couple hours, Adora stirred, raising her head off the pillow with a drowsy look still on her face. “Catra?”

“Right here, Adora,” Catra said, standing up and walking over to the bed. “Feel any better now?”

Adora sighed and stuck her arm out, attempting to shove Catra, but didn’t have the leverage to do more than make Catra rock back on her ankles very slightly. “I guess, maybe, I might have needed it,” she admitted, sitting up and stretching. 

“Well of course you did, dummy,” Catra said, sitting next to her on the bed and giving her a playful shove. “Most people tend to need a little sleep to be able to function, y’know.”

Adora let out a small chuckle, then stood up and stretched again. “Okay, let’s get going. I’m not sure how much the two of them will have been able to get done without me there.”

“Are you gonna explain what your plan is now?” Catra asked. Since Adora had asked Arrow Boy and the geek princess for help, she thought it must have something to do with some sort of technology thing. 

“Oh, right,” Adora said, looking a little embarrassed that she had forgotten about telling Catra what was going on. “Okay, so, you know how the Horde raised me since I was a baby? Well, it turns out, I wasn’t born on Etheria at all. I was taken from my family as a baby, and came here via a portal.” The word  _ portal _ caused a flood of memories through Catra’s head that she did her best to shake off. “I thought for a while that Hordak was the one who had made the portal, but it turned out that Light Hope, the hologram computer program lady who was training me as She-Ra was the one who did it, because she wanted to use me to set off the Heart of Etheria, and she needed someone to be She-Ra for it to work.” They had made their way out of the castle, and as they entered the woods, Melog came to join them.

*hello catra, what are we up to today?* they asked. 

“Still not entirely sure yet,” Catra said, patting Melog’s head, “but I think Adora was just about to get to that, weren’t you, Adora?”

“Oh, right. Well, I figured, since Light Hope had to pull me through  _ from _ somewhere, that she would have been watching me before then, and would know when I was born, since she probably had to take me away after she thought I would be physically able to be separated from my family.” They were well into the woods by now, and while Catra still felt some unease at the shifting landscape, the sureness of Adora’s walk kept her from being much more than a little uncomfortable. “I don’t know what happened to Light Hope after I broke the sword to stop her from using the Heart and destroying the universe, but I thought that Bow and Entrapta could help us maybe find some part of her programming that had survived, and maybe reconstruct enough of her to get the data about me from it.”

“How do you know it’s gonna be safe?” Catra asked. By this point, she had figured out their destination; they were going to the weird First Ones ruin in the woods that she had stolen the tech from that had helped Entrapta to boost the Black Garnet. “If this… Light Hope… was the one who was trying to make you use the Heart of Etheria, how do you know she won’t be dangerous? Even if the Heart has been destroyed, aren’t you worried that she might try to pull something?”

“That’s why we have Bow and Entrapta,” Adora answered, pushing aside some foliage and finally revealing the ruin. “I figure between the two of them, they can keep any lingering bad programs from being able to execute and do anything.” The trio of them walked to the entrance of the ruin, which Adora opened with a word: “Eternia.”

The room the entry path led to looked similar to the one Catra had seen before; it didn’t have any visible tech artifacts around the room, but the walls shone with color, and the pillars of crystal twinkled in the light that seemed to come from nowhere. In the middle of the room, Catra saw Bow arguing with a hologram, while Entrapta flitted about the room, inspecting everything carefully with her hair. 

“Sorry we’re late,” Catra said as she, Adora, and Melog walked into the room. “The princess here needed some sleep, and I wasn’t about to let her go anywhere without it.”

“How are things going?” Adora asked, walking over to Bow. “Made any progress?”

“Not a bit,” Bow said, sounding very frustrated. “All I’ve been able to do is this: For the honor of Grayskull!” He raised his arm in the air, imitating the pose that Adora made when she would most dramatically transform into She-Ra. The hologram blinked in recognition, and a sphere of dots appeared where the strange lady had been standing before. 

“Wait, it didn’t do that when I transformed in front of it before,” Adora said, looking at the projection. “Where did this come from?”

“This is how we found out about the failsafe,” Bow explained. “These constellations here, you can read what they say, right?”

Adora looked at where Bow was pointing, then squinted at it. “Friends of Mara?” she said. The projection disappeared, and a recording started playing. 

“End playback,” Bow said wearily, and the voice stopped mid-sentence. “Seems like without administrator access, that’s all we can access.”

Catra jumped as Entrapta came darting across the room from behind her. “Adora should be able to grant us some level of temporary access, and then we can start working from there. Adora?”

Adora stepped forward,summoning her sword and raising it into the air. “For the honor of Grayskull!” The hologram blinked in recognition again, this time not being replaced by the projection.

“ _ Administrator detected _ ,” it droned.  _ “Welcome, She-Ra. What is your query? _ ”

*do you understand any of this?* Melog poked at Catra’s hip with their snout. *i recognized the star patterns, but this strange technology is only familiar at the reaches of my memory, back when the people who settled this world did the same to mine.*

“I haven’t got a clue what’s going on,” Catra whispered back, “but Entrapta seems fairly sure that this plan will work, so, who am I to stop her?”

Entrapta appeared to have summoned some sort of work station or something, which she was feverishly tapping away at. “This could take a little while,” Entrapta said, her eyes glowing as she worked. “Data recovery is a tricky process in the best of circumstances, and it seems like whatever happened to the program you talked about, Light Hope, she was fairly effectively purged from any easily accessible systems.” She stopped her typing for a moment, turning towards Adora and Bow, who were standing near Catra, seemingly now about as unsure of what to do as Catra felt. “If I work on this, it’ll take time away from being able to fix up Darla. I hope that’s okay."

“Space can wait,” Catra said, her voice causing Adora and Bow to jump in surprise. “Besides, Prime was able to hack into the planet in just a couple of hours; I can’t imagine this’ll take very long, right?”

Entrapta paused, thinking for a moment. “It’s not quite the same,” she said, looking around the room for something. “Imagine like the data here was a piece of paper, and you tore it into pieces, and scattered those pieces around the entire world. Sure, you could theoretically put the entire piece of paper back together, and you may not need all of it to be able to guess at what was on the paper, but some of the shreds may have gotten burned, or thrown in the water, or made really really hard to find. This Light Hope is like that piece of paper.” She nodded, clearly satisfied with the comparison, and turned back to the console. “Granting myself permanent administrator access was easy, at least, so I shouldn’t need any of you back here until I’m all done.” She raised up her pad, giving it a tap. “As soon as it’s ready to go, I’ll give you all a call, okay?”

Catra took the hint, and slipped her hand into Adora’s. “C’mon, you two,” she said to Adora and Bow. “Let’s let the geek princess work her magic.”

Catra and Adora were woken in the middle of the night by the blaring sound of the communication pad in their room. It had been a couple weeks since Entrapta had gotten to work, and aside from the occasional raid Entrapta had made on the Bright Moon kitchens for supplies, nobody had seen her in that entire time. 

Catra was faster clambering out of bed, and reached the pad and tapped the screen, accepting the message. “Entrapta, it’s the middle of the night, do you mind?”

“No time to waste,” Entrapta said, her voice trembling with excitement. “It worked, get here as soon as possible!”

Catra put the pad back down, walking drowsily over to the bed, where Adora was still mostly asleep. “Adora, you awake?” she asked, sitting on the bed and rubbing her eyes. Adora tried to say something, but between her head being down in her pillows and being still mostly asleep, Catra couldn’t make any of it out. Catra very seriously considered climbing back into bed and just waiting until a more reasonable time of day, until Bow and Glimmer appeared in the room. 

“Ugghghghh,” Glimmer groaned, clearly not happy to be awake. Entrapta’s voice came from the pad that Bow was holding. “What’s taking you all so long, was my message not clear enough?” Bow sighed, rubbing his eyes.

“We’ll be there in just a minute, Entrapta,” he said with a yawn. Catra let out an audible groan, then turned and started prodding Adora.

“Adora! Time to be awake, I guess,” she said. “Why couldn’t this have waited until morning?” She glared at Bow and Glimmer in turn; he raised his hands apologetically, and she didn’t even appear to notice, still mostly asleep on her feet. “Adora!”

Adora finally sat up, her hair a total mess. “mmwhat’s goin on?” she mumbled, yawning and looking around the room with unfocused eyes. “glimmer? bow? what’re’y’doin here? ooh is it time for a sleepover?”

Catra sighed, putting her hands on Adora’s cheeks and staring into her eyes. “Apparently, Entrapta’s finished whatever it is she was doing,” she said, finally starting to wake up just enough to be very annoyed with the fact that she was awake because of her own dumb idea. “Can’t wait til morning, so, we’re going now.”

“C’mon, Adora,” Glimmer yawned, sounding even grumpier than Catra felt. “Let’s get this over with so that we can go back to sleep already.”

The four of them appeared in the clearing just outside the ruin, where Melog padded up to greet them. *it is the middle of the night,* they observed, clearly also unhappy with being awoken, which Catra gathered had happened due to her intense irritation flowing through their bond. 

“Yeah, we know,” Catra said, feeling a very unpleasant mixture of irritation and queasiness; while she had been mentally prepared for the teleportation, it seemed that Glimmer did not have nearly the focus needed to make it a smooth experience due to being so tired. “But Entrapta’s all done with whatever it was she was up to, and she would  _ not _ take no for an answer on us coming to see right away.” Adora stepped to the front of the group, opening the ruin for them.

When they reached the room that they had been to before, Catra was astounded to see how different the room looked. There were pieces of paper scattered all over the place, as well as several computers of various sizes, all hooked up to seemingly random points on the walls and floor. Entrapta was in front of them in moments. “Good, you’re here,” she said, clearly not the least bit tired. “I was able to recover a majority of the Light Hope program. I sectioned off all the subroutines related to the Heart of Etheria; I didn’t think they would be much trouble anyway, what with the Heart having been destroyed by the two of you,” two strands of her hair pointed at Adora and Catra, and Catra, despite herself, couldn’t help but blush, “but I thought it best to keep it as far away from being able to do anything as possible.”

Catra found the most comfortable-looking piece of floor and lowered herself down onto it, Melog curling up around her and giving her some physical support to be more comfortable. “So, did you find what we were looking for?” The rest of her friends, apart from Entrapta, sat themselves down on the floor alongside Catra, Bow and Glimmer leaning on each other’s shoulders and blinking and yawning frequently, Adora snuggling up next to Catra with Melog shifting graciously to make room. 

“I think so,” Entrapta said, turning back towards the console at the center of the room. “Light Hope, are you there?”

A hologram appeared in front of Entrapta, and Catra felt Adora tense up next to her. “Hello,  _ Entrapta _ ,” it said, the princess’s name sounding slightly garbled. “How may I assist you?”

“Can you play me back Adora file 3?” Entrapta said after looking down at a pad for a moment. “This should give us a baseline to start with,” she said, turning towards her seated audience. The room darkened, then, in a way all too familiar to Catra, they were suddenly elsewhere.

The landscape around them was a mostly calm, windy field, but what caught everyone’s attention immediately was the hole in space that came into existence between them and Entrapta. Catra stiffened and gripped Adora’s arm tightly. It looked different from the one she had opened, and there was no smell of electricity in the air, nor any crackling and static, but Catra knew that, had they all been there for real, there would have been. The portal expanded slowly, then stopped; there was a flash of light at its center. The light expanded slightly, and then suddenly, on the ground-

Adora gasped beside her, sitting up and staring at the small form that was lying on the grass before them. Catra, almost instinctively, knew that this must be Adora, as a very small child. Adora turned around, prompting the others to turn as well, where they saw Hordak dismount a transport and run towards the portal. As he drew near, the portal shut, and he slowed down, his arm outstretched, then stopped, turning back towards the transport. Before he made it very far, something made him stop again and turn around, striding back towards them. Bow and Glimmer flinched as the hologram walked right through them and bent down to pick up the young version of Adora.

The hologram faded, leaving the five of them sitting on the floor again. Entrapta was typing away madly. “Adora, based on the access history, it seems like Light Hope showed you that memory before, or a portion of it, right?”

“Y-yeah,” Adora said, and Catra felt her trembling. She wrapped her tail around Adora’s waist, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you,” Adora whispered to her. 

“Okay, I thought so,” Entrapta said, finally stopping typing. A holographic display appeared in front of her, and she turned around to face the now very awake group seated on the floor. “I was able to mostly reconstruct the metadata of these files, but some of the early ones I could only give educated guesses as to the timing of them. That one that we just watched was the third file,” Entrapta said, pointing with a strand of her hair at the third item down the list on the display. “Neither of the other earlier files have any visual component to them; based on what you’ve told me before about how you were from a different planet, and that Etheria was still in Despondos at the time, it seems like Light Hope was just barely able to locate you and used most of the remaining power of the system at the time to open the portal to bring you here.” Entrapta pointed at the second item on the list. “This one appears to be an audio recording; it’s not in a language that I recognize, but I was able to analyze enough of it to get a general idea of what was being said.” She tapped it with her hair, and a voice emanated from nowhere.

Catra didn’t understand a single thing the voice was saying, and judging by the looks on Bow and Glimmer’s faces, and the shrugs they gave when she looked at them, they didn’t know either. Catra turned to look at Adora, and was a little surprised to discover she was crying. “Adora? Can you… do you know what they’re saying?” 

Adora shook her head, wiping a tear away. “I have no idea,” she said, sniffling, “but… I think that might be my mom.” Catra listened to the voice again. She still couldn’t understand any of the words, but the tone, the warmth and love, told her that Adora was probably right.

Melog walked forward, nudging Entrapta’s leg. *would this one like me to translate?* they asked, turning back towards Catra. Entrapta’s eyes widened, almost knowing what Melog had said before Catra even translated.

“Can they… understand it?” Entrapta asked, picking up another pad and tapping away rapidly at it. 

“Seems like it,” Catra responded. She looked at Melog and nodded, and they sat on their haunches and concentrated.

*this dialect… it is different from the ones who visited my planet,* they said, tail flipping back and forth, *but i shall do my best to repeat and fill in any gaps for you. can you ask this one to begin the sounds from the beginning again?* Catra repeated the request to Entrapta, who stopped the recording and began it again.

Melog was silent for a few moments, but then began to translate. *she is… growing, and beautiful. i think... soon, she will be able to sleep through the night without feeding. someday, my daughter... you will grow big and strong, and make your family proud. i love you, adora.* Catra didn’t need the last word translated; despite the unfamiliar language the speaker was using, everyone in the room recognized the name of their friend. Entrapta was looking at her expectantly, and Catra realized she had forgotten to repeat what Melog had said to her. As she did, Adora leaned against her, gripping her arm tighter and tighter, and when she finished, Adora threw herself around Catra, giving her one of the tightest hugs Catra had ever received from anyone other than Scorpia. Catra hugged her back tightly, tears running down both of their faces. Bow and Glimmer scooted over and joined in on the hug, Melog padded over and nuzzled up against them, and even Entrapta came over and wrapped the entire group in a large hug. 

They all stayed like that for a while, just letting Adora cry, crying along with her. Bow and Glimmer held each of her hands, Melog rested their head in her lap, Catra hugged her tightly from behind and nuzzled against her neck for comfort, and Entrapta… The sound of tapping brought Catra back to where they were and what was going on. She looked up to see Entrapta, tapping away at the console again. Catra slowly released her hold on Adora, and Bow and Glimmer shifted slightly away to embrace each other. Catra slipped her hand into Adora’s, stroking the back of it with her thumb. 

“There’s one more file,” Entrapta said, pointing to the top of the list, “and it’s not very long, so I didn’t have any trouble deciphering it. It’s a simple medical statement: Adora, born 1:47am, on this... “ Entrapta squinted at her pad, tapping at it. “Light Hope, can you translate this into familiar terms for us? They use a different calendar from us, which I guess isn’t surprising, since who knows where in the universe they are, or were.” 

“Of course,” Light Hope said. “In your terms, the day would be January 19th.” At those words, Catra’s eyes went wide. 

“There’s no way,” Catra whispered, and all eyes in the room turned to her. “Entrapta, what time is it right now?” Entrapta looked down at her pad and tapped it a couple times, her eyes lighting up with recognition. 

“Oh,” she said, walking slowly back over to the rest of the group. “You’re right, Catra.”

“What is it?” Adora said, wiping a tear away from her eyes. 

“It’s today,” Catra said simply, turning to look directly at the person she loved most in the universe. “Right now, for the first time, someone can tell you:”

“Happy birthday, Adora.”

**Author's Note:**

> and that's it! thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it!  
> my twitter is @star_princess96, but don't expect much there other than fanart retweets, memes, and politics stuff


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